World Cup 28/29/30 Tenders

[Odsal Outlaw]

I hadn’t seen this anywhere else, but over the next three days we’ll hear who has tendered for each of the Women’s World Cup 2028, Wheelchair 2029 and Men’s 2030 World Cups.

First up today is the Women’s. Some interesting bids … NZ, France, South Africa, Kenya and PNG.  Would love Kenya if they had the finances, even France if they have got their act together, but likely NZ?
 

Women’s World Cup 2028 Tenders

Edited July 29 by Odsal Outlaw

[BristolDevonCharlie]

Great bit of IRL content for next three days. 

I suppose NZ will depend on 2030. I suspect they will be front runner for that. 

Depending who bids for wheelchair I would probably give France 2028 or 2029. Seeing how big it is in France probs 2029 as first priority, with South Africa or Kenya 2028, and NZ for 2030. 

[bird]

South Africa's background in the womens game is zero.

 

[Click]

Why would we ever put any WC in South Africa or Kenya? 

2 countries that don't even play the sport.

[Eddie]

It’s a shame that they seem to have stuck with the cycle aligned to the football World Cup. 2029, 2033 etc would be preferable as there’s nothing to compete with. 

[Eddie]

1 hour ago, Click said:

Why would we ever put any WC in South Africa or Kenya? 

2 countries that don't even play the sport.

Might as well hold it in Svalbard.

[BristolDevonCharlie]

1 hour ago, Click said:

Why would we ever put any WC in South Africa or Kenya? 

2 countries that don't even play the sport.

Maybe not powerhouses, but the next World Cup was in RL Prime Locations 1 & 2. 2021 was in RL Main Heritage Location. And the Men's 2030 will be in RL Next Best Location. Then, as I allude to France (RL's Heritage-Hanging-On Location) will probably get 2028 or 2029. Therefore the other tournament is a chance to expand. 

Yes, Kenya and South African are a long shot. But they both played a decent amount of internationals in 2023. More than Southern Hemisphere sides and up there with France. 

[Eddie]

5 minutes ago, BristolDevonCharlie said:

Maybe not powerhouses, but the next World Cup was in RL Prime Locations 1 & 2. 2021 was in RL Main Heritage Location. And the Men's 2030 will be in RL Next Best Location. Then, as I allude to France (RL's Heritage-Hanging-On Location) will probably get 2028 or 2029. Therefore the other tournament is a chance to expand. 

Yes, Kenya and South African are a long shot. But they both played a decent amount of internationals in 2023. More than Southern Hemisphere sides and up there with France. 

World cups need to make money though, which was hard enough in England let alone Kenya. 

[BristolDevonCharlie]

26 minutes ago, Eddie said:

It’s a shame that they seem to have stuck with the cycle aligned to the football World Cup. 2029, 2033 etc would be preferable as there’s nothing to compete with. 

As FIFA World Cups are (NH) summer and RLWC's are in October / November I don't think it matters. Also timings avoid Ashes and Olympics. Basically, as long as they avoid the Rugby Union Men's World Cup, which they have. 

What is great is that they have a big tournament four years in five from 2026 to 2030, and a cycle which gives us three in each four years going forward.

Add that to World Series in 2025, 2027 and 2029, then Pacific Champs each year and big bilateral series in 2025, 2027 & 2028. A good amount of international footy to look forward to. 

[BristolDevonCharlie]

3 minutes ago, Eddie said:

World cups need to make money though, which was hard enough in England let alone Kenya. 

The business cases will, I am sure, be key.

Will be interesting to see which bids have a form of government funding. 

[Whippet13]

3 hours ago, BristolDevonCharlie said:

The business cases will, I am sure, be key.

Will be interesting to see which bids have a form of government funding. 

Would think a PNG women's WC bid is likely to get Australian Government backing as it helps with soft power etc.

Edited July 29 by Whippet13

[Eddie]

41 minutes ago, Whippet13 said:

Would think a PNG women's WC bid is likely to get Australian Government backing as it helps with soft power etc.

Given that gender equality is poor in PNG, and that each year more than 1.5 million women and girls there experience gender-based violence, it may not be the best place to host a women’s World Cup. 

[stookie]

17 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Given that gender equality is poor in PNG, and that each year more than 1.5 million women and girls there experience gender-based violence, it may not be the best place to host a women’s World Cup. 

Yeah it's terrifying. The counter-argument is that because RL is so insanely popular, it can be used as a force of good to try and change that situation; which it very much is already. If it goes ahead, there will be a huge amount of security for everyone involved, so that aspect should be covered (I hope).

To be honest, I'm more worried that unless it's basically funded entirely by the Aus & PNG governments, it would lose a huge amount of money. The country is so poor, even the men's internationals don't sell out. Imagine a couple of dozen women's games, most not involving PNG, Aus or Fiji, I'd suspect ticket sales would be abysmal (unless given away to school kids etc).

[gingerjon]

18 minutes ago, stookie said:

The counter-argument is that because RL is so insanely popular, it can be used as a force of good to try and change that situation; which it very much is already.

 

[Hopie]

I'm not sure there is evidence to suggest the women's and wheelchair events could stand alone, especially in some of those countries listed as bidders. 

The Women's world cup was the least competitive of the three tournaments, and the England game that was supposedly going to break attendance records for a women's Rugby match was poorly attended despite a lot of nearly free tickets to get the kids interested.

Whilst double and triple headers are not a good solution for international tournaments, I think the festival of world cups is the best way to share the cost of marketing and build interest in a host country and I'd be surprised if we didn't go back to that in the next cycle. 

[Dave T]

24 minutes ago, Hopie said:

The Women's world cup was the least competitive of the three tournaments, and the England game that was supposedly going to break attendance records for a women's Rugby match was poorly attended despite a lot of nearly free tickets to get the kids interested.
 

Aye, wasn't this the penny-drop moment of the RLWC where it emerged that they had cocked up massively and double counted ticket sales, which basically meant most events did worse than they expected, and probably stopped them reacting in time?

Absolute shambles. 

[Odsal Outlaw]

I do think a wheelchair World Cup in England could do well. We have seen potential for decent crowds and tv coverage.  I remember attending the Copper box at the last World Cup. A great event.

[gingerjon]

9 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Aye, wasn't this the penny-drop moment of the RLWC where it emerged that they had cocked up massively and double counted ticket sales, which basically meant most events did worse than they expected, and probably stopped them reacting in time?

Absolute shambles. 

It was poorly attended relative to the hype but still got 8,200 on a midweek afternoon.

Which was, from memory, an actual record for a game where it wasn't people who basically early arrivers for a men's game?

[Hopie]

28 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

It was poorly attended relative to the hype but still got 8,200 on a midweek afternoon.

Which was, from memory, an actual record for a game where it wasn't people who basically early arrivers for a men's game?

Indeed, just over half of what they were suggesting, and with ticket prices of £2.21, hardly the basis for a sustainable tournament. 

[JT RL]

It should not be rocket science.

Northern Hemisphere year 1 .. England +(Group in France, Wales or other)

South Hemisphere year 5 .. Australia + (Group in NZ, PNG, other)

repeat every 5 years.

 

[Dave T]

57 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

It was poorly attended relative to the hype but still got 8,200 on a midweek afternoon.

Which was, from memory, an actual record for a game where it wasn't people who basically early arrivers for a men's game?

Had they not believed they had sold 16k or so we could have been going all out to smash that 8k figure. 

[gingerjon]

1 hour ago, Hopie said:

Indeed, just over half of what they were suggesting, and with ticket prices of £2.21, hardly the basis for a sustainable tournament. 

You're right.

Playing games in the day during term time is not the basis of any kind of sustainable approach.

And nor, given that we cannot find a single country that wants to do it, is running 3-4 World Cups concurrently.

[Hopie]

17 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

You're right.

Playing games in the day during term time is not the basis of any kind of sustainable approach.

And nor, given that we cannot find a single country that wants to do it, is running 3-4 World Cups concurrently.

So are we cancelling, or do we keep running without sustainability.

The "day during term time" game was the highest attended event of the women's world cup, as long as you correctly ignore the "combined" attendances which are quoted for double headers.

 

[BristolDevonCharlie]

1 hour ago, JT RL said:

It should not be rocket science.

Northern Hemisphere year 1 .. England +(Group in France, Wales or other)

South Hemisphere year 5 .. Australia + (Group in NZ, PNG, other)

repeat every 5 years.

 

Sorry, can you elaborate please, very few details here?

[gingerjon]

29 minutes ago, Hopie said:

So are we cancelling, or do we keep running without sustainability.

The "day during term time" game was the highest attended event of the women's world cup, as long as you correctly ignore the "combined" attendances which are quoted for double headers.

 

Well, we’re obviously not cancelling because this is a thread about the multiple bids for a separate women’s World Cup.